I am like, so embarrassed… I forgot it was the 13th birthday of LE GROVE… YESTERDAY.
Can you believe it? The site is now a teenager. Well, this week, it’ll be getting a new cleaner template. The site will work better from a mobile perspective so you have more space to comment. It’ll also look a lot sharper. I cannot WAIT.
Anyway, I wanted to say a massive thank you to all of the people that tweet, listen, comment, and visit the site on the daily. It’s a massive privilege that anyone pays attention to our mutterings and I am very happy you didn’t all bin me off for the fancy YouTubers.
Right, what do we have today?
I did some rummaging around yesterday on the Ozil stuff. I don’t have a++ stuff, but I think the return of the German was more a result of circumstance than a key indicator of how we’re going to operate this season. I think it’s still positive for the player, at least the coach is trying to include him, it’s probably also an indication he’ll be here all year.
At the end of the day, it’s in the interest of Arteta to get something out of a player costing the club £18m a year. It’s also in the interest of the player to show prospective clubs that he’s worth a punt at a rate he deems acceptable next year. Let’s hope this potential rebirth has more substance to it than the other 13 false dawns.
Then there’s nothing particular new to share on the transfer front. Arsenal need to sell before they can buy, but it sounds like the club is fairly confident of making something happen this summer.
The thinking seems to be that a lot of deals are going to happen towards the end of the window. I quipped that maybe clubs are thinking of holding onto players this summer in the hope of higher prices next year. PSG Tech Director, Leonardo, poured cold water on that idea when he said,
“All the clubs today need to sell. There is also FFP. PSG are in this situation. We made a big investment on (Mauro Icardi). We need to be creative. Player departures are anticipated. We finished playing in August and not in May. We have up until October 5th to sign players. But we have to look at the exit door before.”
I think it’s likely that a few big balls need to get rolling then we’ll see the merry go round kick into action.
Arsenal has a collection of players that could move this summer. We need to gather about £90m to make our dreams of midfield completion come true. This is the list of names.
- Kolasinac £4.5m (£120k p/w)
- Torreira £18m (£65k p/w)
- Holding. £8m ( £40k p/w)
- Sokratis £5m (£90k p/w)
- Lacazette £35m (£120k p/w)
- Reiss £20m (£40k p/w)
- Mustafi £15m (£90k p/w)
- Matteo £30m (£40k p/w)
Conservatively, there’s £140m we could bring in if the stars aligned… not to mention we’d clear £785k a week in wages which is £40m a season. I don’t even think the above is a long shot, we need to make it happen. We have far too many players on our books that we need to shift, transfer fee or not.
The imperative is to clear the wage bill this summer, so if you moved on the above players and took £100m, you’re still winning. You can afford to add Partey, who at the very most would command Lacazette money, and I reckon you could land Aouar for under £100k a week.
The really crazy thing about the above block of players is you probably don’t need to backfill any of the roles… the only area I’d say might need looking at is the striking department. If we could take Edouard from Celtic, a player who has two years left on his deal at a Champions League-less club, then we’d be in top 4 shape squad wise.
The imperative for the summer though is reshaping the midfield. We need more creativity and it’d be a dream to add more power and pace.
Though I will say, I still think we’ll improve on last year regardless of what we do from now. A strong start is imperative. We need to go into the second international break within touching distance of the top of the table. That then sets us up really nicely. 9 points from 12 would be ideal.
We also have quite a nice advantage of playing a lot of our tough away games in the front half of the season. Liverpool, City, United, Spurs, Leeds, and Everton all come before January. We’ll be playing to partially full stadiums. Hopefully, the return legs, we’ll have bigger crowds.
I’m feeling pretty positive about our chances this year, but I really do feel so much of our success this season is built into how we start. This is a team that needs momentum. Winning the Community Shield means nothing if we get shithoused by a late Mitrovič goal in the first game, and save David Moyes job with disastrous follow-up against West Ham. We need Arsenal versus City, Chelsea and Wolves energy… not ‘do I even like football’ vibes from Villa and Watford.
This is a huge season. I am very excited to get started. JUST SIGN SOME MIDFIELDERS PLEASE.
P.S. Xhaka doing bit against Switzerland, you hate to see it.
Granit Xhaka Vs Germanypic.twitter.com/JOCOAUwP9X
— BNS Comps (@BnsComps) September 6, 2020
Uwot?
Apparently the mickey mousers are about to lose winaljum to the Barca bandits for a pisstake £15 million .Koeman a huge fan.That leaves a v.big hole in these middle of it happens.This me@nscthey could turn their attention to Partey.I would suggest the Arsenal negotiating team start stepping up their attempts to deliver him & stop f*** ng about.
—
More likely the scousers replace Gini with the beautiful midfield conductor Thiago. A fit Naby Kieta will replace Gini’s energizer bunny midfield role
It definitely is a much better experience on a mobile.
Good work.
Haha DB10 I honestly enjoy Emiratestrollers posts, and there are other good guys like those mentioned above that I hope reappear soon, glad certain posters seem to have disappeared mind.
New look is familiar yet sleeker and sharper. Great job. Good idea to stick with what works and just tinker slightly.
Well at least it’s only one more season of someone having to actually explain to you what it is Ozil does on the pitch and warble on about chances created blah blah blah.
If I wasn’t looking forward to seeing this season unfold I’d say roll on 2021.
Nice changes on here Pedro. Well done.
CG
The Xhaka detractors looking more foolish by the week.I think the elite ( Man City/Bayern) will be taking a very close eye on Mr. G. Xhaka.He is too good for our current rabble. He deserves CL soccer.
I disagree with almost everything you write and radically disagree with you here. Xhaka is only effective internationally because the pace is so slow.
His level was Hertha Berlin before Christmas .He would never get a game at another big club
Slicker mobile experience. Real smooth 👌
Nice Work pedro. I like the comments section as it is. I am glad there is just a few tweaks.
Anyway back to football, I can’t believe the international break can also make a transfer window boring. Very slow news week.
The new look’s nice. Make sure you add a firewall plugin or a two factor login authentication..my WordPress websites have been hetting hacked and malware infested left right centre since the last 6 months..just got one cleaned from fiverr
*getting
Happy birthday legrove. Any chance of guest appearance from legrump Geoff. Lord he was one negative man even in the good time s Fair play to you Pedro for keeping it going so well. I think we will get Partey It’s double edged if we don’t get him it’s a disaster if we leave him till next year his value will have dropped as only one year left on contract. No doubt he’s what we need so if we can complete the deal with Laca included then be great but think it’s going down to the wire before it be… Read more »
Pedro
Great new look.
Thanks for all the hard work you put in
Really so much for a generation coach playing defensive football no wonder ozil has a look
Pedro
Visual layout. Just needs to be moved in a fraction from the margin on the left side. Just a smidge like the width of two characters.
Its looking great tho
I also reworked the rules of the blog with a place to register complaints (as if this place isn’t perfect)
https://le-grove.co.uk/rules-of-engagement/
Let me know what you think!
Evening,
Pedro did you just reduce the font size on the site and that’s it?
I was expecting, dancing girls, free red memberships to the arsenal, and crates of peroni for comment of the day!
Ha Ha, just kidding. Looks smart, all grown up and posh!
Pedro
Good stuff here mate, place is fresh, like you’ve put some Brylcreem in the dome, ironed the clobber, and splashed a bit of Paco Rabanne about the gonads.
Le Grove on the pull in Essex, go oorrn son.
I still can’t believe we pay Kolasinac 120k weekly.
It’s no wonder we’ve been so shit in the last decade.
Thanks for all the hard work you do here, even places with pay firewalls don’t do the half the job you do.
…and your patience with dissenters, that’s legendary, even Marc will agree to that.
Nice revamp Pedro. Looks smooth as a marble.
Happy 13th also! (I’ll) have a drink on me and here’s to another 13.
Enjoying the new look Pedro. The attention to mobile UX is really noticeable…. clean and smooth. 👌🏻
We will get Partey but not Aouar imo
A DM is more important as we CAM solutions already
CC, that comment has me in the mood to put on my Gucci loafers and head to Loughton to fail with unattainable women
1st XI almost there
Martinez
AMN
Tierney
Saliba
Gabriel
Partey
Ceballos
Saka / ESR
Pepe
Auba
Willian
Loving the look Pedro, nice work
Apparently Villa bid for Martinez closer to £20million
Thanks for all this feedback! Holmes, you sound like a expert, so that’s good news if you approve,
Diss, that’s very kind. A pleasure that anyone would spend time on here… even those that don’t agree 😂
Left, not bad money!
Thanks for the blog Pedro.
I have one request. Could we please see the return of the Oktoberfest girl next month?
Left, we can.
The greatest pic of all time.
I wonder if we could get closer to £30 Pedro? If it brings us to our midfield targets I’m all in, but not in a rush to see him leave.
Aston Villa hace submitted a new bid for Emiliano Martinez. The bid is close to Arsenal’s £20m valuation.
I know it’s probably going to be met with a certain amount of condemnation but can we please think about this seriously it’s 20 million for a keeper who’s been here as a backup for 10 years bar 10-12 games covering an injury. It helps us to get other targets
Like you Peds, I also work in Marketing.
As a marketer I say that it’s nice to see the right website improvements being made for the right reasons, based on your audience insights. Not changes for changes sake.
As an Arsenal fan I say it gives me exactly what I need to get my daily fix of Arsenal news and chat. Top job. 👍🏻
Marko
The question on the keeper situation is a simple one – who does Arteta see as No 1.
If it’s Leno then selling if we cant’ raise money elsewhere makes sense, if Arteta sees Martinez as No 1 then selling is self defeating.
Roll on October!
Hey Pedro,
I don’t know if this a problem with the new set up – but I have just tried to paste a link to an article about a young striker we’ve shown an interest in but it’s not posting?!
Marko
We can sell him for double that next season if leno ends up as number1
Georginio Rutter
https://goonertalk.com/2020/09/07/arsenal-interested-in-rennes-striker-georginio-rutter/
Marc I would imagine that the guy who’s been the starter for the last two seasons would be first choice going forward long term wise. Look times like these you need your technical director to step in because Mikel might genuinely like the likes of Martinez and AMN and there’s nothing wrong with that but that’s potentially 40 million for back up squad players being disregarded right there and for a club struggling to come up with the money to address it’s midfield it’s honestly a no brainer. Martinez love the guy very likable but it’s 38 appearances in 10… Read more »
Marko
If we sell off Martinez, don’t we have to buy a reserve goal keeper, t doesn’t make sense to say we use it to get our targets when a substantial part of his transfer will be put toward a replacement.
We have been linked to the Brentford keeper recently.
Marko has it out for martinez some sort of weird grudge
We can sell him for double that next season if leno ends up as number1
London if you think that we’re selling a second choice keeper next summer for 40 million then I dunno what to tell you that’s pretty stupid
Happy birthday le grove Pedro thanks for your years of dedication. I really love coming on here every day and reading and adding to the comments.
The update also looks very nice
Good job lets get Partey and Aour in now and start the season with a bang
If we sell Martinez, we have to then sign a back-up keeper.
I don’t know what the going rate for back-up goalies is at the moment.
Marko
Mate his value went to 20 million after 10 games think what he can after a season of utter quality. Guys a special keeper and either way his value will increase. He has less of a sample size of performance than leno but what we have seen he has played at a higher more complete level.And your argument about us not keeping him because he hasn’t had a great passed football history. You’d be the same idiot who wouldn’t have signed Ian Wright i guess or vardy.Some players come to prominence later in their careers..
Arsenal need to offer Aston Villa Martinez and Kola for Jack Grealish and see if they will consider it.
WTF happened to you guys? Since when did y’all get so soft, complementing Pedro on the site and singing from the same hymn book?
Pedro
I don’t like the new site, it’s new and everyone says it’s nice but they are just blowing smoke up your backside so you don’t bin them.
Not a regular commentator here, but a regular reader. Pedro, just one question – why do you insist on putting Reiss on the list of the players to sell? There is so much potential with him, and us not being flush with cash we need such players to flourish.
We could make a same mistake as city did with Sancho.
I know it does not mean you want him gone, but still, I’d not even have him on the potential departures list.
Wish we could get up to £25M for Martinez considering we’d still have to buy a replacement. I remember we were linked with the keeper at Brentford.
Martinez/Torreira/Sokratis for Partey and a new back up goalie is a clear upgrade.
Mate his value went to 20 million after 10 games think what he can after a season of utter quality.
Right you’re counting on him being a number one which by that time we wouldn’t need to sell him I’m saying after a season of being number two his value will diminish.
Reading Arteta now doesn’t want to let Holding go out on loan to Newcastle. Unless we’re expecting someone to bid actual money for him, makes no sense to keep the lad here this season. We have way too many centre backs at the club.
Hope Edu knows when to not let the manager always have his way with some of these decisions though. Can’t have a squad filled up with a dozen defenders and no actual quality in the middle.
Also a bit worrying Auba hasn’t signed yet to be honest
Bati
I’m getting a horrible feeling Arteta is like a fat kid in a sweet shop when it comes to players. AMN, Xhaka, Holding, Martinez we need to generate some money and our squad is too big – someone has to leave.
Martinez 20mill..lol
So sell him for 20..spend 10m on replacing so selling a quality keeper to make 10 Mill..
Not sure why people are going on about him being here 10 years.. Its about the here and now and he has been exceptional..
Happy birthday LG! Blog’s looking crisper than ever.
We’d sell Martinez then not have a competent keeper who can fill in should Leno suffer another injury
Honestly I would sacrifice any of bellerin, Lacazette, Torriera. Martinez, AMN and Guendouzi if it means we get both Partey and Aouar. Martinez has been a bit better than Leno. But having two quality keepers and no midfield won’t get us anywhere. And I would keep Leno between the two because he has had long term credentials. I wouldn’t sell Leno on the back of Martinez having 15 odd great games. What if he flops completely after Leno leaves? That’s too much of a risk in my eyes. We need quality and creativity in midfield more than we need a… Read more »
Pedro
Nice work you have done on the site,it looks great and it’s finer with the mobile phones
Congrats
Just FYI David Raya already has more career appearances under his belt than Martinez despite being 4 years younger. Just saying
Batistuta
Honestly, I think the Auba deal is done< the club is just holding back the official news.
No one else in Europe will pay him the wages that are being reported In the tabloids, no one else will come close. to paying a 3 year 250k weekly deal for. 31 year old.
Marko
Does David Raya wish to be number 2 goalie at Arsenal?
It’s hard to find good young goalies willing to be reserve goalies, our best bet will be an older 34 year old plus goalie closer to retirement.
Marc
I really hope that’s not the case. We’re going to need to cash in on some of these fan favourites seeing as the players we’d like to see sold aren’t having any reasonable bids coming in for them and that means making some very unpopular choices as long as we add to that midfield of ours
David Raya is quite short for a goalie, he has that Ospina or Almunia look about him.
He’s only 6 feet and won’t dominate.his box properly. He’s another flapper.
Finding a cheap alternative keeper won’t be a big deal. Plenty of keepers available for 5 to 8 mil. And if it means that a 12 mil is standing between us in getting both Partey and Aouar, I would sell Martinez in a heart beat. The only reason to keep Martinez would. e if arteta really believes he is completely better than Leno in the long run. That I can understand. But we need to sell someone to get. better. Otherwise we will get to use our keepers while they get peppered with shots all the while Auba and our… Read more »
Martinez was outstanding last season – why would we get rid of one of our best keepers ever ? No amount of money will compensate for that
It is simply a backward step
Selling Leno makes sense – he is nowhere near as good as Martinez
Edu has to take charge of the transfers, Arteta seems to believe he can make every player better and is reluctant to let go of the players that need.be sold off.
One of the cons if being a young manager it seems.
Auba for me is as good as done. The back and forth teasing from him and the club some weeks back confirms for me. Not sure why the lack of announcements but we never do things in a simple manner.
Northbanker, I really like Martinez but one of our best keepers ever?
Habesha
Plenty of good keepers around for 5-8 million?
You sound like you’ve gone goal-keeper shopping recently.
How many good goalies are available for for that price who are willing to warm the bench? It’s not as cheap or easy as you’re suggesting.
Maybe we ca stumble of a free transfer like Joe Hart, that’s the level we may have to settle for.
38 first team appearances for us in 10 years and apparently he’s one of our best goalkeepers of all time. Arsenal fans and having knee jerk reactions name a better duo
I always knew one of Leno or Martinez would have to leave.
We can delay Martinez] leaving by bumping up his pay but then that will make it more difficult to sell him next season.
Something has to give and of them has to go.
I’m not a big fan of Leno tbh, I prefer Martinez but one of the two will be leaving,
This new design looks great. And the font is more beautiful.
Happy birthday to Le Grove.
Thanks for the great work you’ve done for 13 years Pedro. Long may it continue.
Woah Pedro
Like the new UI a lot.
Smooth and Slick
Seems near perfect for mobile
Thanks a lot for this and happy bday Legrove..
If Leno one of our best keepers of all times, then it’s because we don’t have an extensive record of great keepers recently.
Grooming great goalies wasn’t one of Wenger’s strengths, anyone who endured with Almunia for so long didn’t thing great goalies was a necessity.
Not able to select cut copy text within the comments though. Could be an issue on my mobile.
Nevertheless Thank you Pedro 😎
Arsenal are still struggling to make any progress in the pursuit of David Raya. Brentford are currently not even willing to negotiate — they are very insistent that he’s simply not for sale. Raya is open to #AFC move and I understand he has told Brentford how he feels.
Sounds like we are willing to sell Martinez
Website looks great Pedro well done
‘ Just FYI David Raya already has more career appearances under his belt than Martinez despite being 4 years younger. Just saying’
At League one and championship levels which is not guitar the highest levels of football.
David Raya doesn’t have even one game experience at the highest level, hasn’t played any European games, premier league matches or be number one in a FA cup winning team that went through the best teams in England.
Marko, you’re trying to hard to show your disdain of Martinez.
Reasons for keeping Martinez over Leno.
• Dominates his box (oo-er)
• Better with his feet
• Better presence – defence seems calmer in front of Emi
• Higher ceiling
• Leno will probably fetch more $ if selling now
“Peds..
I think what London and Gonsterous mean is comments when viewed on the main page on my phone start right at the left margin so look a little off compared to where it ends on the right because the avatar box makes the right have more space because it is offset a little to the right.”
Maybe you need to update your phone. Fits great and looks great on mine.
HB LG. Nice clean look Pedro.
** At League one and championship levels which is not quite the highest levels of football
No problem with margins on my phone – Samsung J6.
“Martinez was outstanding last season – why would we get rid of one of our best keepers ever ?“
Who wants to tell him?
Left testicle
Yea, I agree if we are selling one of two equally gifted goalie to raise money, it makes more sense to sell the one that will fetch more cash.
We paid £22.5 million for Leno two years ago, I don’t think we get more that £25 million for Leno currently. He’s not as great as many rate him here. He’s a decent shot stopped but can’t dominate his box or distribute the ball properly. He’s not a great keeper like Jan Oblak or Allison . He’s not even as good as Pope in Burnley.
We can rate Martinez over Leno or vice versa but point if the bids coming in are for one of them then what do you do? Keep them both or accept the bid you’ve gotten and use that to fix your midfield that’s as porous as ever. It’s not about who’s better at this point as we’re quite lucky to have two very good goalies but it’s about who we can get the money for at the moment and use to strengthen other pressing positions. Martinez or Leno leaving Arsenal in 2020 isn’t going to be the reason why we… Read more »
Good point Batistuta. We can’t sell if nobody wants him. Surely somebody would be interested in a decent international keeper.
Batistuta
…or just sell the goalie giving the club an ultimatum.
In a way, Martinez going public wit his restlessness made the job easier for the club. .
If Villa’s is bidding £20 million for Martinez, it jus goes to show how good he is because that’s about the ball park range for what Leno too will bring, because only continental European clubs will bid for him…and they don’t have that much money to splash around.
Leno getting billed as a championship goalkeeper by some seemingly, literally just started for Germany yesterday and came 2nd in our POTS standings.
Odd bunch.
At League one and championship levels which is not guitar the highest levels of football.
Martinez at 28 has 5 games in la liga and 15 premier league games as his experience. Hardly great is it
Very odd CC. The same will be changing their tune when he performs well for us in the coming season.
If it came to choosing between Leno and Martinez, I would go for the one who has a superior physical presence and exudes confidence and, significantly, also has a far superior skill set.
Yep, Martinez all day long.
Would you be as confident with Leno between the sticks the way we have been successfully playing out from the back. I’m not saying he’s a bad goalkeeper. It’s just my opinion that Martinez is better suited to the way Arteta is setting us up to play.
Happy 13th b’day le-Grove. Pedro the new UI is great.
Dissenter I’m sure we’d get more than 20 odd million for Leno if we transfer listed him today but the point though is that it’s Martinez who has talked about needing more game time and he’s the one we seem to be getting bids for. Can’t not pay attention to that with hopes that someone will bid for Leno, not a lot of top clubs looking for a goalie at the moment so if we’re getting 20/25 million for Martinez of the back of his amazing performances the back end of last season and it’s the Villas and Newcastle’s and… Read more »
Left Leno plays for the German national team, they at out from the back as well as anyone so that really shouldn’t be the problem. We might all have our preferences but we need the funds at the moment to fix our midfield so if we get a good offer for a player we can actually do just fine without then by all means we should take the money. I’d be against selling Bellerin personally as i really like him and ive not been convinced by either Cedric or AMN in that position but if we got a 30million bid… Read more »
I’ve seen Jennings play and Martinez every bit as good although based on admittedly shorter period. If we’re looking to progress then why would we sell our best keeper.? It makes no sense at all. Way back in 1976, Brian Clough recognised the need to have a top keeper to win trophies. he paid a then British record (£220,000 I think – those were the days) to sign peter Shelton. He went on to win th league that season and then the European Cup
We must keep Martinez to move upwards.
Left test On any level do you not feel the way we played end of last season suited Martinez down to the ground, thus elevating his standing? We played a low block, packed our box, and his big frame was fantastic for dominating beyond that. Our end game is to be elusive, mobile, and a high line playing side. Are you as confident in Martinez dominating 35 yards of space between him and an attacker? Because that’s what Leno was doing left and right before Arteta came in. Also, Leno has never had a kick under an Arteta side. No… Read more »
* Peter Shilton
Leno played for Germany the other day, although the goal against wasn’t down to him his handling during the game was t reassuring. Then again I am biased, just never been a big fan of Leno. Good shot stopper but doesn’t command his area, a bit flappy too.
Happy Birthday LeGrove, Pedro you’re the man for providing this space year after year for us all to bask in the highs [few and far between lol] and vent in the lows. New site layout looking slick too, I’m a fan.
I can’t believe that Everton got James Rodriguez over the line, credit to James himself clearly loves his football and wants to show what he can do while still in his prime. Along with Allan and Doucoure, they’re building a very good midfield you have to say.
Still need a twenty plus goal CF though to really push on.